I heard about a great website, iamsecond.com. It has videos of a variety of people who declare “I am second” with God being first. The videos are powerful and for those of us who are Christians they make perfect sense. For those who are not Christians, I think the site does a great job of building a bridge and encouraging people to consider the possibility of being second.

When we look at the world, we see the ugliness of sin. The escape of three women who had been held captive for a decade is one extreme example. Each one of us have personal stories that make us cry or make us so mad we want to scream at the world.

That is where I found myself Friday afternoon. I sat with a group of leaders wrestling with an ugly situation involving some of our people. There was sorrow, anger, frustration…and the big question “why did this happen?” Good leaders take it personal and look in the mirror to see if it was something they did or didn’t do. They blame themselves and desperately want to fix it.

The easy answer is to tell everyone to become a Christian. Of course the recent story of a Christian musician being accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife might make some skeptical. I prayed Saturday morning needing answers and thankfully God nudged me.

When we are focused on something larger than ourselves, we seem to get it. If some catastrophe hits a city there are two choices. Those who chose to focus on their community come together and great things happen and amazing stories are told. Those who chose to worry about themselves loot.

I have a bias. Jesus perfectly demonstrated what it meant to live a life focused on something bigger. It is amazing to mediate on the idea of God making our well being bigger. Jesus didn’t have to die for us. He chose to die for us. He lived a life saying “not my will but your will be done.” Even non-Christians are humbled by his life and point to his example. Everyone can agree he lived for something bigger than himself.

When do Christians get it wrong? When we start worrying more about ourselves and stop caring about those around us. When our needs and sadly often our wants become bigger. We need to remember the one we follow. He set the standard and promises to help us meet it.

This seems to be a universal principle. I played through a variety of situations. When we are focused on something bigger than ourselves, we act appropriately. When we are focused on ourselves, we hurt others. You can apply this to marriage, work, friendship…any area of your life.

Monday morning I will have the opportunity to sit back down with this group of leaders and offer my contribution. It will need to be something that can be understood by everyone regardless of their faith. It will need to be tangible. I think I have the seeds of something good.

For those of us who are Christians, the world desperately needs to see that we are “second” and we are focused on something bigger. For those who are not Christians I would ask you to consider what is bigger in your life.